THE TICKER. MIDWEST BRIEFS.

Northbrook-based Allstate Corp., its Encompass Insurance...

June 13, 2001|By From Tribune news services.

Northbrook-based Allstate Corp., its Encompass Insurance unit and Progressive Corp. filed a civil lawsuit, accusing 26 people of participating in a fraud ring that, Allstate claims, netted at least $12 million through its activities. The companies said the defendants include doctors, dentists and an acupuncturist who worked in the Bronx, Queens and Long Island, N.Y. The suit claims that over a four-year period, four of the defendants set up an extensive network of phony medical corporations to fraudulently bill the insurers for tens of millions of dollars in insurance claims for staged car accidents.